Table Of Contents

Introduction

A warm welcome awaits all who visit the historic Anchor Inn Bef and Breakfast in Syracuse, Indiana. Anchor Inn Bed & Breakfast was voted one of the Top 15 B&B's with "Best Hospitality"and "Best Garden" by inngoers in Arrington's Bed & Breakfast Journal's Book of Lists..

This turn-of-the-century, three-story, yellow frame house was built in the American Four Square architectural style and adjoins an 18-hole, public golf course. Lake Wawasee, Indiana's largest natural lake, is just across the road from the B&B property.

Located in Northwest Indiana, 118 miles east of Chicago and 120 miles north of Indianapolis, Anchor Inn is centrally located between South Bend and Fort Wayne in the heart of Indiana's lake country and only 1 hour from the University of Notre Dame.

Originally built in 1905 during a period when Lake Wawasee and the neighboring Lake Syracuse area were a remote resort, the Anchor Inn opened as a bed and breakfast in July 1986. With its fine oak woodwork, claw-foot bath tub, open stairway, antique and period furnishings and high ceilings it is reminiscent of another era. Each guest room is individually decorated and has its own special atmosphere.

The large front porch, (with its wooden swing and several high back rocking chairs), faces the tree-lined drive, large front yard and a view of the neighboring golf course. A smaller porch adjoining one of the B&B rooms overlooks a large flower garden and pergola.

A full, complimentary breakfast is prepared by Jean and Bob each morning and served in the home's dining room. Guests will experience a welcome change from restaurant dining as they all sit and eat together at the same table. The menu changes from day to day, but you are promised a full and hearty meal each morning of your stay. (An attempt will be made to meet any special, health related diet request).

Open all year, rooms range in price from $115 to $125(tax included)

Four guest rooms with either a queen or king size bed and private bath

No minimum stay on holiday and football weekends

Area Attractions

There are several things to do and see while you are in the Syracuse-Wawasee area, but the main attraction for most guests is a visit to one of the glacier-shaped lakes. There are over 100 lakes in Kosciusko County including Indiana's largest natural lake (Lake Wawasee) and deepest (Lake Tippecanoe). Here you can enjoy skiing, boating, windsurfing, and swimming. Try your luck at fishing for bass, northern pike or bluegill. Several fishing tournaments are held each summer on Syracuse and Wawasee Lakes, and national ski teams practice and perform on Lake Camelot and Webster.

Other attractions include: several antique shops, theatre in-the-round for live musicals and plays, a 3400 acre state game preserve,and free music concerts held in three city parks on summer weekends.

You may wish to visit any one of five county museums, including: Billy Sunday's home, the Jail Museum (which served as the sheriff's home and county jail from 1871 - 1989) and the Bell Helicopter Museum. Sunday morning church services are sponsored by local congregations on various lakes. Guests are invited to sit in their boats or chairs for lakeside services.

Indiana's oldest sternwheeler will tour you around Lake Webster or you can take a dinner cruise on Lake Wawasee (for guests with reservations). There are three public golf courses within a 5 mile drive from Anchor Inn (with South Shore Golf Course located adjacent to the Anchor Inn property). Amish area of Nappanee and Shipshewana are close by and popular with guests for weekly auctions and flee markets. For Anchor Inn guests, the University of Notre Dame is only a 1 hour drive away.

Kosciusko County Summer Annual Events Include

A variety of festivals and community events occur throughout the summer season, such as:

Annual Crusin Cuse Car Show

North Webster Mermaid Festival

Village of Winona Art Fair

Mentone Egg Festival

Silver Lake Days Festival

Kosciusko County Community Fair

Lake Wawasee Flotilla

For complete information on our community events contact:

Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau

Web site: livewellinthemoment.com

Phone: 800-800-6090

Decor

Jean and Bob have made a special effort to decorate their home in a way to make each room of the house as relaxing and comfortable as possible. Guests have commented that staying at Anchor Inn, "sort of feels like visiting Grandma's house".

There are family photos, collectibles, many original water-color paintings, Jean's handicrafts and needle work, selected pieces of antique furniture and other artifacts in each of the rooms.

Cross-stich samplers Fun things in Hoosier cabinet Family Pictures

One guest room has a lovely four-poster bed made of a walnut tree taken down from the yard and crafted by an Amishman. Other rooms contain collections, such as: vintage hats, perfume bottles, baby dishes, gravy boats and glassware.

Parlor

History of the House

Anchor Inn was built as a home for the Eugine DesJardin family in 1905. The home was very nice for its time. The bathroom of the house had a water closet with an elevated wooden tank, an enamel bath tub with clawfeet, and a marbletop sink. The house had hardwood floors throughout, an open stairway as well as the maid's stairs behind the kitchen, a large pantry, maid's room and a carbide-gas generator that was used to produce gas for lighting the house.

The DesJardins lived in the house for four years from 1905 - 1909. At that time, this property was traded for two businesses in downtown Chicago.

Sometime between 1932 -1938, the front yard and two lake lots were used as a park. It had a big wooden toboggan slide on to Lake Wawasee and a shelter house near the house. (The shelter house fell down in 1946 and the slide was torn down in 1947.)

The house was used as a lodge back in the 40s, and at one time two or three small cabins housed guests in the back yard.

There also was a campground behind the house and a baseball diamond on the property.

A Little Bit About Us

Jean and Bob Kennedy are your hosts at Anchor Inn Bed & Breakfast. Jean was trained as an RN at the University of Evansville, Indiana and received her MSN in Pediatrics from Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis, Indiana. She worked most of her nursing career in the area of neonatology and pediatric ICU. She also taught in the nursing program at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. After their first daughter was born, Jean set aside her nursing to become a full time momma, wife and homemaker.

Bob attended college at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho and received a degree in Wild Life Management. After graduation from college, he spent some time working for the California Forest Service and then worked for the Lafayette City Park Department.

After the Kenndy's were married in 1980, they moved to Anchorage, AK where they lived for 4 years and where their daughters were born. While there, Bob worked 2 off / 2 on at Prudhoe Bay in Atlantic Richfield's warehouse 900 miles away from their home. This was north of the Artic Circle and at the northern most end of Alaska's pipeline. Since moving back to Indiana in 1985, Bob worked at the local mill that mixes and makes feed supplements for cattle, birds and other animals.

"The Anchor Inn has been by far the best B&B experience we have had! Jean and Bob have done a fabulous job at restoring and preserving a turn-of-the-century Victorian home experience, made complete by their pleasant family nature! Plus the baked French toast and ham was to die for!"

"I really enjoyed all of the decorative "collectibles" from years and years back - memories from my mother, grandmother and sister....."

"What a wonderful place to spend a weekend!! The beauty of your home and gardens will remain as happy memories. But the "care and feeding" of your guests surpasses everything. What you do is from the heart - and it shows. Thanks for a wonderful visit. Hope to come again."